The ONLE Networking story
The first ONLE had 18 visitors - 17 of them became members right off the bat!
But our story started years before that meeting.
At another networking meeting, back in 2014, James and Kelly met for the first time. They went into it looking for business relationships. They found in each other life partners instead.
After getting married, they started a web design business. Because they’ve always been people-centred, their work led them back to the forum that first brought them together. Networking.
And while they’d undoubtedly sing its praises (they found love through it, after all!), they had to wrestle with the ugly underbelly of networking.
The forced referrals brought no real results.
The category mapping made members impersonal.
The obligations made it a drag and the repetitive meetings felt like a waste of time.
And this is what led them to create ONLE. The need for connections. For showing up authentically. And for making sales without selling.
They brought back the networking setting they fell in love with. 200 hundred members joined…
And then Covid hit.
James and Kelly West, founders of ONLE Networking.
The Wests getting married under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Find out why ONLE embraced online-first networking to safeguard the people-first network.
2020 - the networking ‘flip’
When the world went into lockdown, ONLE switched to online networking. But rather than using it as a stop-gap, ONLE applied lessons learned while running ONLE Online to ensure that the meetings were cohesive and continued to deliver value.
This headstart, combined with the extraordinarily supportive community, meant that ONLE became the first network to ‘flip’ networking by moving to an online-first approach. Online networking means that ONLE is inclusive to all businesses, irrespective of their circumstances. Plus it is now expanding its geography faster than ever before. And as the world adapted to this online-first approach, in June 2021 ONLE membership exceeded 300 members.
2021 - ONLE goes global
Now that geography is no longer a barrier to networking, ONLE decided to push the concept further than before by launching ONLE New York. With many businesses already working globally, the only element lacking was a central forum to meet people in other countries. And as the place that Kelly and James got married, they had always dreamed of taking everything they love about networking to one of their favorite places.
“We founded ONLE Networking so everyone could experience the kind of networking that changed our lives. We gained business, friendship and support, and to top it off, we met while networking! But we also saw that networking often imposed rules that got in the way of building relationships. By removing negative elements, we've seen members relax, build genuine connections and create a supportive, collaborative community.”
James West, ONLE Networking
“We both benefitted enormously from networking before we met, but we realised that some elements of business networking were either off-putting for newcomers or put unnecessary pressure on members. We wanted to attend a professional networking business that valued meaningful relationships and collaboration over everything. When we launched ONLE to such a positive response, it was clear that others felt the same”!
Kelly West, ONLE Networking